With popularization of color photographic light-sensitive materials, it has become important to conduct color development processing rapidly, and to provide images of high quality.
In response to these requirements, various investigations of rapid processing for improvement in image quality, particularly improvement in color reproducibility, have been made with respect to photographic light-sensitive materials for color prints.
It is known that a silver chloride emulsion which has a high silver chloride content is preferably employed as a silver halide emulsion for rapid processing, as described, for example, in International Patent Application (Laid Open) No. WO 87/04534 and JP-A-64-26837 (the term "JP-A" as used herein means an "unexamined published Japanese patent application").
Various investigations have also been made for improvement in color reproducibility. In particular, with respect to photographic light-sensitive materials for color prints, many attempts for improving the absorption spectra of cyan, magenta and yellow colored dyes form colors have been made. For instance, pyrazoloazole type magenta couplers have been developed that are preferred from the standpoint of bright reproduction of magenta, red and blue series colors because they provide colored dyes by a coupling reaction with an oxidation product of a developing agent, whose absorption spectra do not have subsidiary absorption in the short wavelength side and are very sharp, in comparison with 5-pyrazolone type magenta couplers conventionally employed. These are described in detail, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,500,630 and 4,540,654, JP-A-61-65245, JP-A-61-65246, JP-A-61-147254, and European Patent (OPI) Nos. 226,849 and 294,785.
Further, in connection with yellow couplers, many attempts for improving color reproduction by reducing undesirable absorption in the magenta side wavelength, by varying the kinds and positions of substituents in comparison with those conventionally employed as described, for example, in JP-A-63-123047, and JP-A-63-241547.
When using these yellow couplers, however, it is necessary to employ them in relatively high content and hard gradation as compared with conventional yellow couplers, since the dyes formed have low visual sensitivity for human eyes. When these yellow couplers are employed in silver halide color photographic materials for rapid processing having a high silver chloride content, sufficiently high gradation and color density are not always obtained. Particularly, when these photographic materials are subjected to continuous development processing, as the amount of the photographic materials processed increases, sensitivity and gradation are remarkably decreased, causing a large problem in practical use.